Having visible tattoos has been met with quite a bit of stigma for decades. To some, tattoos make others look unprofessional, uneducated or even unemployable. Many even grew up with their parents telling them not to get a tattoo specifically because future employers wouldn't hire them.

The proof is in the ink

Researchers from the University of Miami and University of Western Australia Business School set out to study whether tattoos really do have an effect on employment, as many have been led to believe. Though 40% of millennials in the U.S. have at least one tattoo, according to the Pew Research Center, 72% of them say they usually cover up their ink. The researchers studied only those with visible tattoos — about 2,200 people across the country — to see how their tats impacted their job.

According to their findings, a person’s tattoo didn’t matter to employers, and in some cases, it actually helped the study participant get a job.

“Not only are the wages and annual earnings of tattooed employees in the United States statistically indistinguishable from the wages and annual earnings of employees without tattoos," reads the study's findings, "but tattooed individuals are also just as likely, and in some instances even more likely, to gain employment.”

"The long-held stigmas associated with having tattoos, and particularly visible ones, may be eroding, especially among younger individuals who view body art as a natural and common form of personal expression," lead study author Michael French said in a press release.